Deutzia Week

Deutzia would perhaps make a good marker plant for phenology, since it stubbornly waits for the start of June, a couple of weeks before the longest day, to show off its glory. As week 2009/23 begins, we are still waiting for the Deutzia x magnifica to break into pink, and the Kalmia latifolia is also still on the cusp. The hybrid Pyracantha are looking excellent and our only surviving Hebe, transplanted from a nearby garden, has a splash of white flower on one side. After losing two, I realize I have not understood the trick of growing Hebe, but suspect that it is a solitary, team-hating creature that does not like proximity or any close competition from other plants. Our perennial peonies are blooming: in German they are known as Pfingstrosen, marking their link to the feast of Pentecost, which occurs this year on May 31, and they are also a good indicator of the start of June. We wobble a little in our view as to whether this is summertime. In meteorology, the northern summer is seen as beginning at the start of June, when the three hot months begin, but the celestial calendar of astronomy situates spring's beginning on June 21, closer to the onset of that summer lull when plants stop playing the debutant and switch to their work of building strength in leaf and branch and nurturing fruit. For the purposes of this blog, we'll call the start of June and the Pentecost week summer, since it is roughly equidistant from the start of the growing season at the beginning of May and the first sign of autumn, when the Vinus leaves fade at the beginning of September.

Deutzia Week

2008/23: Around town, the tiny white flowers of hybrid Pyracantha in masses on the thorny branches are a common eyecatcher at the start of this week. Most are the 'Red Column' cultivar, with a few 'Orange Glow' mixed in to add variety to the effect when the berries arrive. Right now they all look much the same. I have not been able to find any discussion about their ancestry, though 'Orange Glow' was sold to us under the name P. crenatoserrata. Whether that is botanically correct or not I cannot say. In their discreet way, the various Hebe bushes are joining in the merriment with sparse white flowers. Late rhododendrons, like the mauve one conveniently hiding a neighbour's bins, are just coming into flower. The Deutzia x magnifica shrubs are just starting to burst forth, as is Kalmia latifolia. By the end of this week, both reach their peak of delicate beauty. Perennial peonies are blooming, and Lilium henryii too.